There (is/was) some incentive there to cover surgeries, i think? That and, frankly, representation matters (especially to leadership, while recruiting numbers are low).
The first outwardly trans person i met was a servicemember while I was working for the DoD, and that made me start questioning all the anger and fury about trans people.
There (is/was) some incentive there to cover surgeries, i think?
Yeah, while serving in the US military, you are allowed one free “cosmetic” surgery. They define cosmetic as any unnecessary surgery you elect to have. Most people used to use it to get laser eye surgery to fix their vision, before they successfully argued that fixing your vision improved your ability to do your job, so it’s not “cosmetic.” I knew a few women who used it for breast reduction surgery. (Large breasts are not comfortable/functional in heavily armored gear.)
At some point in the last decade, they started allowing people to use your cosmetic surgery for trans operations. So a lot of people outed themselves, filling out the paperwork to have the operation on the govt’s dime.
A couple years after the process started, Trump just sent out a DoD-wide notice that trans people were being banned. So many people had publicly outed themselves by this point; there was no way to reneg on all that official paperwork and go back in hiding.
Thankfully, the DoD stood up for us then and got Trump to back down. But he’s determined to not let anyone stop him this time as president.
There (is/was) some incentive there to cover surgeries, i think? That and, frankly, representation matters (especially to leadership, while recruiting numbers are low).
The first outwardly trans person i met was a servicemember while I was working for the DoD, and that made me start questioning all the anger and fury about trans people.
Yeah, while serving in the US military, you are allowed one free “cosmetic” surgery. They define cosmetic as any unnecessary surgery you elect to have. Most people used to use it to get laser eye surgery to fix their vision, before they successfully argued that fixing your vision improved your ability to do your job, so it’s not “cosmetic.” I knew a few women who used it for breast reduction surgery. (Large breasts are not comfortable/functional in heavily armored gear.)
At some point in the last decade, they started allowing people to use your cosmetic surgery for trans operations. So a lot of people outed themselves, filling out the paperwork to have the operation on the govt’s dime.
A couple years after the process started, Trump just sent out a DoD-wide notice that trans people were being banned. So many people had publicly outed themselves by this point; there was no way to reneg on all that official paperwork and go back in hiding.
Thankfully, the DoD stood up for us then and got Trump to back down. But he’s determined to not let anyone stop him this time as president.